The present invention relates to agricultural machines and pertains particularly to an improved implement for dispensing seeds, fertilizers and the like.
A great many agricultural products are grown and harvested as row crops. Seeds for row crop plants must be metered and dispensed at uniform distances along a prepared row in a field. Different crops require different spacing. Seed planters must be adaptable to plant the various size and shape of seeds for the various crops. Many planters use a dispensing plate having seed slots for moving selected seeds from a hopper to a discharge tube leading to a furrow defining the row. The dispensing plates must be driven accurately in order to position the seeds at the proper distance along the row.
The seeds usually must be graded and sized in order for the planter to function properly. The seeds must also be free of debri and foreign matter.
A recent improvement in the art of dispensing has eliminated many of the problems of the prior art, such as damage to seeds as a result of the mechanical seed plates. For example, a vacuum dispenser has been developed which picks up individual seeds from a hopper by means of a vacuum acting on the ports of a plate and the seeds are individually released at the proper position for movement down a chute to the planting position. This development has eliminated some of the requirements of grading of seeds and has reduced the damage to the seeds.
The improvement in the dispenser, however, has not been followed by corresponding improvements in the overall planting machines and the individual planting units. Most planting machines, for example, have become extremely complicated with multiple extremely complicated parts and mechanisms which are expensive to construct and maintain. The individual dispensing units, for example, have complicated frame work and support structure and are not easily and conveniently attachable and detachable from a main frame. Such units are also complicated and difficult and expensive to assemble, adjust and service.
Multiple unit planter apparatus typically employ one or more ground wheels for driving a jack shaft from which a plurality of planting or dispensing units are driven. The typical ground wheel units available today are difficult to mount and align on the planter frame.
Many other features of such machines are also open for improvement. Accordingly, it is desirable that new and improved planting machines be available which are simple and inexpensive to manufacture and simple and easy to assemble and maintain.